Saturday, May 18, 2013

Exhibitionism vs. Eroticism

If you
find modern culture to be awash with sex, and yet completely unerotic, Emily
Esfahani Smith has written an essay for you. She asks, "Is Sex Still Sexy?"

Eros, in fact, is everything that Speak About It and the
hookup culture are not. Casual sex, readily available sex, publicized sex,
sloppy drunk sex, sex for the sake of self-gratification and
self-discovery--this is not eros. "Sex-on-tap," Nehring writes in A
Vindication of Love, "attenuates rather than inflames passion. It is for
this reason that the relentless emphasis on sexual climax that distinguishes
our day from most others in historical memory has a largely depleting effect on
the life of the emotions... The natural distances between people have been
diminished so radically as to make romance--which depends on the retention
of other-ness, tensions, and reserve--impossible."

I don't agree with everything she says here, but find her piece
thought-provoking, and a good description of the general state of modern
culture. Smith is clear that her objections to this state of affairs are not
religious. She makes a point to noting that one commentator she quotes is an
atheist, for example.

Sex is a physical capacity, but its exercise is determined by
man's mind--by his choice of values, held consciously or
subconsciously. To a rational man, sex is an expression of self-esteem--a
celebration of himself and of existence. To the man who lacks
self-esteem, sex is an attempt to fake it, to acquire its momentary
illusion.

Romantic love, in the full sense of the term, is an
emotion possible only to the man (or woman) of unbreached self-esteem: it is
his response to his own highest values in the person of another--an
integrated response of mind and body, of love and sexual desire. Such a man (or
woman) is incapable of experiencing a sexual desire divorced from spiritual
values.

Yes. Sharing everything lessens mystery, but one must also have something to
share. Merely not talking about mindless sex isn't the solution.

Weekend Reading

"It's virtually impossible to get a point across to anyone who
feels that you're meddling in something that's none of your
business." -- Michael Hurd in "10 Tips for Good Communication",
at The Delaware Coast Press

"Consider apology as a way of
honoring what you know to be true, while at the same time honoring yourself and
those you care about." -- Michael Hurd, in "Apology as the Last Word", at The
Delaware Wave

My Two Cents

Michael Hurd's treatment of the subject of apology shows that the
conventional wisdom on the subject is both wrong and harmful. It is easy to
forget, in this age of insincere, conditional "apologies" that making an
apology can be moral and practical.

Explosion on the Moon

My daughter's
love of the moon has made me more alert to stories like this one:

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit
the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid
Environment Office. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as
anything we've ever seen before."

Anyone looking at the Moon at the
moment of impact could have seen the explosion--no telescope required.
For about one second, the impact site was glowing like a 4th magnitude
star.

There is video available at the link, but you need to view it as a loop to really see
anything.